Messerschmidt and Modernity

The Vexed Man, acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2008, is one of a group of astonishing "Character Heads" produced by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), a renowned German sculptor at the Habsburg court in Vienna. Messerschmidt and Modernity examines not only the study of expression and physiognomy during the eighteenthcentury European Enlightenment but also the impact the heads have had on the work of modern and contemporary artists in Austria, Great Britain, and the United States.

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